After I fell in love with documentaries my senior year at my undergraduate institution in 2016, I spent the past five years of my life mastering the art of telling visual stories. In 2022, NPR’s Next Generation Radio challenged me to try something new: To enter the daunting new world of audio storytelling. By its conclusion, the week-long program granted me access to unbelievable resources, experienced mentors and incomparable experiences that I will never forget.
Strong, nurturing mentorship brought me into the program, and strong, nurturing mentorship will follow me out of it. I would have never applied to the program at all without Professor Amara Aguilar encouraging me to do so. The fact that she believed I would be a good fit empowered me with the belief that this opportunity was something I could achieve despite my lack of experience in the radio space.
Upon my acceptance to Next Generation Radio, I was assigned to work with Mariana Dale. Mariana is the best mentor I could have asked for. She gave my thoughts and abilities power by listening to my perspective and affirming my decisions. I learned so much from her about structuring an audio story, working as a journalist, and communicating with a team to actualize a piece that has many parts. My story simply wouldn’t be the way it is today without her guidance and expertise (and her thumbnail – RIP!). Connecting me with Mariana might be the best takeaway from the program for me.
The past week hasn’t been easy. There were tears alongside the laughter and anger alongside the determination. I definitely didn’t get much sleep, and I didn’t even have as much on my plate as some of the other reporters who were juggling finals and class and jobs. Still, I know that we’ve all created special and meaningful stories we can be all proud of. I know that the mentors I met are some of the greatest people with the warmest hearts; they wouldn’t be here if they didn’t care about equipping the next generation with the best tools to tell their stories to the world. By the end, I know we’ve all taken something away from the program — about communicating with each other, growing from the lessons we all have to offer and becoming better people.